Tenants raising rents on new roommates

Finding a place to live in the Mission can be daunting. Often, dozens of hopeful renters show up at open houses, and Craigslist ads elicit responses from hundreds of people.

With demand comes desperation, and in addition to those who offer cooked meals or to slip in an additional $600 to secure a spot, some are willing to pay extra rent to a master tenant for a room — and some are willing to charge it.

In the Mission and throughout the city, master tenants are charging incoming roommates more than an equal share of the rent, reducing their own rent as a result — a practice the rent board says is illegal if all rooms are proportional.

Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union on Capp Street said that his organization receives complaints every few weeks from tenants who say they are being cheated by a master tenant.

Read the complete story at Mission Local.